It is common practice in the construction of a flat wall to erect same with courses of blocks having generally flat top and bottom faces placed in horizontal courses one upon the other in end to end relation. However, when a rounded (concave or convex) wall is desired, such blocks are also laid in horizontal courses, but are manually rotated so as to obtain the desired configuration of wall. Since laying blocks constitute a big portion of the direct labor cost and this adjustment is manually accomplished, such practice is time consuming and therefore, expensive. Furthermore, the results vary from one worker to another.
In addition, for the construction of walls of non-conventional shape, it was necessary to provide a large number of different types and sizes of building units and the units themselves have been more expensive to manufacture than conventional blocks. Furthermore, in some cases, it was necessary to remove or grind off a portion of the block so as to fit same into the wall, for example in corners.
Several attempts have been in the past to produce a multi-purpose block. It is worthwhile noting the U.S. Pat. No. 1,334,599 (Cusick) and 2,313,363 (Schmitt) in which building blocks are disclosed. These blocks comprise a bead designed to overlap the upper portion of the outer face of a lower block mainly to render the wall water and frost proof. The blocks disclosed in these patents are designed for the construction of a flat wall and thus, do not allow the construction of a rounded wall.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,715 (Dowse) discloses a building block for road surfaces and river linings. Such block comprises an upper portion and a lower portion providing load bearing projections. The lower portion is provided with recesses to allow identical blocks to be interlocked.
Other patents fail to solve the problem of building an economical and sturdy wall structure.
The present invention relates to a block for the construction of a wall and more particularly to a block comprising guiding means used to displace a first block of a subsequent course of blocks with respect to blocks from the next below course of blocks in order to form, easily, rounded or flat walls or a combination of both.